


all is bright

by middlemarch



Category: Mercy Street (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Christmas Eve, F/M, Holidays, Kid Fic, Motherhood, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-02
Updated: 2019-02-02
Packaged: 2019-10-21 03:11:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 742
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17634932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/middlemarch/pseuds/middlemarch
Summary: Mary Phinney loved the service on Christmas Eve. Mary Foster wasn't as certain.





	all is bright

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Stille Nacht](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17594723) by [MercuryGray](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MercuryGray/pseuds/MercuryGray). 



“Go without me,” Mary said, adjusting the baby in her arms. He cried again, unsettled despite being held close, his face nestled against her neck. “He shan’t be happy without me,” she added, patting his back softly, firmly. When they were alone, she would sing to him, whatever carols she could remember after so many broken nights, the fundamental hymn _Mamma is here, Mamma has you…_

“But you wanted to go, you said so—and there’s a nursemaid to look after him,” Emma said, pouting a little as if on Mary’s behalf. Henry, at least, would be charmed by her expression.

“Perhaps he’s just making a fuss for a moment?” Henry offered. He could not have looked taller, more like a stalwart oak transformed into manly form than he did in his dark suit, his overcoat hanging over his forearm like autumn leaves leached of their color. Mary remembered a time when he’d used his cravat as a tourniquet, a time that seemed so long ago. Everything before Elias seemed long ago now.

“No, he won’t be happy without me,” she repeated, sparing their sensibilities by refraining from mentioning how Elias needed to be nursed; her breasts had filled at the sound of his first frantic cry. She looked at Jed, trying to tell him what she meant with only her glance. 

“You’re sure?” he asked. “It seemed to mean so much to you, going to the service tonight.” Henry and Emma were wise enough to understand that the exchange was not intended for them, shy enough to spend the moment gazing at everything but each other.

“It will be service enough to be with him,” Mary said, shifting the baby on her shoulder, wishing Henry and Emma were in Timbuktu and she and Jed were alone with Elias, tucked together in their bed, only some muslin between them. Her nightdress unbuttoned, the baby unswaddled. Jed was never more content than when he held her as she nursed Elias, his bare chest against her back, Elias’s small palm pressed between her breasts, always reaching for her.

“We won’t linger,” Jed replied, smiling warmly, his eyes telling her the only song he would sing tonight was the one he’d save for her. The only candle he would remember lighting would be the one beside their bed, that would fall upon them both. Upon Elias in his cradle, the nursery empty, several steps too far away from them in the night.

“The rooms are made up, Emma in the blue, Henry overlooking the square,” Mary reminded Jed. “There are extra blankets in the cedar closet if it’s too cold.” Each bedside table held a small posy to welcome their guests, Emma’s a cluster of Christmas roses, Henry a spray of holly, a tassel of pine to evoke the season.

“I’m sure we’ll be perfectly fine, Mary,” Emma said, blushing prettily. All it had taken was the intimation of Henry in his bedroom—it seemed Jed had been right about the younger couple, though she’d wait until the morning to give him the gift of acknowledging it. There would be a great many gifts then, trinkets and books, a new pair of gloves, a cherry red muffler, and a small woolly dog Elias was most likely to cram head first into his mouth if he paid any attention to it at all.

“We’ll be off then. Don’t wait up, Molly,” Jed said as Emma tied the ribbons of her bonnet and Henry shrugged his overcoat on again. The carriage they’d ordered waited outside though Mary knew if she and Jed had been alone, they would have waved it off and walked the several blocks, the cold air like a sparkling liquor.

“I don’t think I could if I tried,” Mary laughed. The baby whimpered, rooting unsuccessfully at her neck which Jed saw, grinned at. 

“Sleep well, however much you can. However much he lets you, the little tyrant,” Jed said fondly. 

“How can someone so small be a tyrant?” Emma asked curiously.

“He rules the house with his faintest cry. Without saying a word, he has us dance to his tune,” Jed explained, making Henry chuckle. Jed leaned in, stroked the baby’s silky dark curls very gently as a leave-taking. Emma and Henry preceded him out the front door, Emma waving slightly; the night was cold, full of stars, the dark blue the color of Elias’s eyes, a color all his own. Worth marveling at.

**Author's Note:**

> Another take on the set-up MercuryGray created, the reunion of the two pairings, now facing a new world. The title is taken from "Silent Night."


End file.
